EAST NORRITON — Two years after Einstein Medical Center Montgomery (EMCM) opened on Germantown Pike with fanfare and promises to achieve trauma center status in the future, hospital officials were unsure when that application process would begin.

“Einstein Medical Center Montgomery is still in the process of compiling the appropriate data and conducting a review to determine the viability of achieving trauma center status against the required accreditation standards,” said Damien Woods, the public relations director for Einstein Health Care Network. “There currently isn’t an established timeline for when this determination will be made.”

The Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation (PTSF) of Mechanicsburg uses a two to four-year certification process to grant trauma center certification to Pennsylvania hospitals, said Juliet Geiger, the PTSF executive director.

“Any new hospital needs to submit a letter of intent that says their board of directors is pursuing trauma center accreditation. We need to receive a letter by July 1 of the previous year,” Geiger said. “No one can become a trauma hospital quickly. It is a two to four-year process to become a trauma center.”

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Abington Memorial Hospital, located in Eastern Montgomery County on Old York Road, became the first, and only Montgomery County hospital, to receive trauma center certification in 1987.

“They got that designation at the beginning, when PTSF was first accrediting Pennsylvania hospitals 27 years ago,” she said.

“It is a very stringent process. Pennsylvania is considered to be the most rigorous state for awarding the certification.”

Geiger said there was a “shortage of trauma surgeons” that was causing “some hospitals to have trouble” getting the certification.

A “trauma” patient has “injuries that necessitate a team treatment process,” Geiger said. “A car crash, a gunshot wound or a fall from a building that require a team response. This involves either severe injuries or injuries to more than one system of the body.”

Pennsylvania trauma centers provide 24-hour availability of a team of specially trained health care providers who have expertise in the care of severely injured patients, according to the PTSF website. These providers may include trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, cardiac surgeons, radiologists and nurses. Specialty resources may also include 24-hour availability of a trauma resuscitation area in the emergency department, an operating room, laboratory testing, diagnostic testing, blood bank and pharmacy.

There are four levels of trauma centers in Pennsylvania starting with Level I, which provides multidisciplinary treatment and specialized resources for trauma patients and requires trauma research, a surgical residency program and an annual volume of 600 major trauma patients per year.

Level II trauma centers provide similar medical services and resources but do not require the research and residency components. The second level requires 350 major trauma patients per year.

Level III trauma centers include smaller community hospitals that care for patients with moderate injuries and can stabilize the severe trauma patient in preparation for transport to a higher level trauma center. Level III trauma centers do not require neurosurgical resources.

Level IV trauma centers can provide initial care for trauma patients and stabilize them while arranging transfer to a higher level of trauma care.

“For calendar year 2013 (January to December) Einstein Medical Center Montgomery had 209 trauma-related inpatients,” said Woods in an email. “It is important to note that not all of these would have met the PTSF criteria.”

Woods said EMCM officials had not submitted a letter of intent to PTSF asking for trauma center certification.